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The Obama administration is likely to work on trade deals this year and is hoping Congress will revive expired presidential authority to directly submit trade agreements for a vote. "Recognizing that a robust, agile U.S. trade agenda is essential to U.S. economic expansion and job growth, we fully support the president's call for trade-promotion authority," the American Chemistry Council said.

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Congressional inaction on trade-promotion authority could weaken the U.S. position in Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations, chemical industry officials said. "Most people would view TPA as essential to concluding TTIP," said Greg Skelton, senior director of regulatory and technical affairs at the American Chemistry Council. Without it, he said, "there is a risk that any final deal could be unpicked in Congress."

U.S. business groups including the Business Roundtable, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Farm Bureau Federation and National Association of Manufacturers are supporting President Barack Obama's efforts to fast-track trade agreements with 11 countries in the Pacific Rim and with the European Union. Some members of Congress are pushing back on the use of trade-promotion authority to complete the agreements and a bill is expected be introduced in the coming days that would authorize the president's TPA power.

The group Food Supplements Europe includes BASF, DSM, Merck and Bayer and is seeking to promote engagement with regulators and scientists. "We will work progressively to defend the interests of the sector and build a regulatory environment that is proportionate via constructive dialogue with regulators," the group said.

Development of the 13th Report on Carcinogens should be suspended until after the National Academy of Sciences concludes its congressionally mandated review of the previous ROC, the American Chemistry Council argues. "[S]ignificant scientific flaws" are likely with the existing process, ACC says, as it "starts not with the data, but rather with the default assumption that essentially all tumors induced in animal studies infer carcinogenic hazard or risk to humans, and then requires that there be unequivocal evidence to refute this assumption."

The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to prioritize its Next Generation Compliance initiative during the next three fiscal years. Critics say the plan is too wide-ranging and interferes with regulatory authority traditionally held by states. "It would be premature to elevate Next Generation Compliance to the status of 'national enforcement initiative' before even the basic goals, milestones and significant action plans for the program have been developed and publicly vetted," the American Chemistry Council said in submitted comments.